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The burden lies with you to choose your friends and choose them wisely. You can’t always choose your acquaintances, but your friends — those you let close to your heart — can be chosen. The common thought of iron sharpening iron comes to mind from Proverbs 27. However, my favorite aspect of choosing good friends lies simply in the help you can provide each other.

“Faithful are the wounds of a friend . . .” Proverbs 27:6a
“Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.” Proverbs 27:17
“As in water face answereth to face, so the heart of man to man.” Proverbs 27:19

Choose for yourself friends who will remind you to walk closer to God, and that trust you to help them walk closer to Him. Be cautious of friends like Job had. When he needed his friends, family and their support most, all of them forsook him.

Job 19
13. He hath put my brethren far from me, and mine acquaintance are verily estranged from me.
14. My kinsfolk have failed, and my familiar friends have forgotten me.
15. They that dwell in mine house, and my maids, count me for a stranger: I am an alien in their sight.
16. I called my servant, and he gave me no answer; I intreated him with my mouth.
17. My breath is strange to my wife, though I intreated for the children’s sake of mine own body.
18. Yea, young children despised me; I arose, and they spake against me.
19. All my inward friends abhorred me: and they whom I loved are turned against me.
21. Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my friends; for the hand of God hath touched me.

If you want a friend to be there for you, then choose a good friend and make sure you’re there for him. Edgar Watson Howe said, “If a friend is in trouble, don’t annoy him by asking if there is anything you can do. Think of something appropriate and do it.” Henry David Thoreau also hit the nail on the head when he reminded us that “The most I can do for my friend is simply be his friend.”

Don’t let the opportunity slip by to be a friend. Choose yours wisely, and be wise enough to be one worthy of being chosen.